Catalonia receives eight Starting Grants 2011 of the European Research
The scholarships granted to young researchers who work in Catalonia represent 2% of the European total and 32% of Spain.
BY BIOCAT
The fourth Starting Grants of the European Research Council (ERC) has granted these prestigious scholarships to 480 researchers of all Europe for a value of €670 M. Of these, 25 develop their research projects in Spain and eight are researchers who belong to Catalan research centres and universities.
The main research area are physics and engineering, with seven of the eight scholarships granted in Catalonia, and one for life sciences given to Armando Emeterio del Río Hernández, of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, with the project How force regulates cell function: a molecular and cellular outlook.
Three of the eight Catalan wining researchers already work for the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA). The complete list is:
- José Ramón Galán-Mascarós, ICREA research profesor at the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ)
- Rubén Martín, ICIQ
- Paolo Melchiorre, ICREA research profesor at ICIQ
- Hugues de Riedmatten, ICREA research profesor at the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO)
- Morgan Wilfred Mitchell, ICFO
- Adrian Bachtold, the Catalan Institute of Nanotechnology (ICN)
- Armando Emeterio del Río Hernández, Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB)
- Xavier Ribas, University of Girona (UdG)
List of ERC Starting Grants 2011
List of ERC Starting Grants 2011 in life sciences
The interest in these scholarships, which fund the best projects of pioneering research of early career researchers, is growing every year. The number of applications increased by 42% compared to last year (from 2,873 to 4,080) and the budget 15%. The average age has been 37 years old in 2011 at European level and each scholarship has a medium endowment for project of €1.5M to €2 M. With these last figures, 44 Catalan researchers have obtained these grants since 2007.
ERC also summons annually the Advanced Grants, addressed to senior researchers. In the last call, seven Catalan scientists were recognized.
- Recommended reading: ERC grants, the prestige scholarships (Biocat, 15/12/2010)
- Video: Grants for the dream of science (English | Español)